by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

Remember the days when the words "celebrity viral video" often meant sex tape? Not anymore.

Nowadays, a popular video featuring a celeb - popular defined as literally millions of viewers on YouTube - could be an accident or a deliberate ploy to make a celebrity look good, heroic, funny, down-to-earth, normal. Plus, on everybody's lips.

"It makes them look like regular people or more likable, but the element that drives that is the authenticity of a video," says Kevin Allocca, YouTube's trends manager.

A viral video becomes "a community" of all those tuned into their devices to watch it, says longtime celeb watcher Bonnie Fuller, editor of HollywoodLife.com. "You (the viewer) become part of that shared community, you connect with celebrities and with other people who share the same interest."

Plus, it's fun: "With so many dark things in today's culture, this is a way of shaking it off," Fuller says.

There's Mila Kunis bantering endearingly with a stammering young BBC radio reporter at a press junket for her new movie, Oz the Great and Powerful; the video of their unconventional "interview" has been seen nearly 11 million times so far. Already widely popular, she appeared even more appealing because the video suggested a glimpse into the "real" Mila. Even the reporter looked good; he's now being held up as the next Hugh Grant.

There's Pink on Sunday in Philadelphia, distracted on stage by a crying child, trying to comfort her with a stuffed frog toy. The video, apparently taken by someone in the audience, has already gotten more than 1 million views on YouTube.

"Is everything OK right here?" asks Pink the concerned mom of a 21-month-old daughter. "Is this little girl all right? What's going on? Why is she crying? Why is she upset?"

There's Billy Joel in January, letting a Vanderbilt University student accompany him on piano to New York State of Mind at a concert, and getting huge audience approval for giving the kid his due afterward: "Nice going, Michael! Guy's got chops."

And don't forget Kristen Bell's teary meltdown over her love for baby sloths on her boyfriend's homemade video and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which put both the good ol' girl House of Lies actress and sloths in a whole new positive light. Who knew baby sloths could be so cute?

All of these and more have gone viral on the Internet in the past year; people not only watched them on their various screens but many were inspired to create their own version. People discussed them on social network sites, and then watched them again as the mainstream celebrity-obsessed media recycled them and reported on them and gabbed about them even more.

"In this age of interactivity around Web video, people watch Jennifer Lawrence, they talk about it, and then we saw a massive spike on Jennifer Lawrence on everything she's ever done," says Allocca.

Welcome to the viral vortex. Some of these viral videos are deliberately produced and posted by the celebs (or their people) to enhance their image, fame, ego, negotiating position or product, as in Aniston's case. Or as in the case of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and other stars goof-lip-synching and dancing to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen last year in a homemade music video that's closing in on 61 million views on YouTube.

"It showed them connecting and interacting with the online audience and doing the same thing the online audience does (in creating homemade videos," Allocca says.

Others are just accidental, as in the Kunis/BBC interview. Or in Gosling's case: A passerby on the street recorded the action and posted it. Gosling said later he was embarrassed by the episode but everyone else hailed him as the guy who "saved the day."

Occasionally, a viral video comes back to slap a star, as in the case of Bieber again; his rep has been fouled a little in the last few weeks due to erratic behavior, including video of him jumping out a van and attacking a paparazzo, and a London audience booing when he showed up late for a concert.

But it's still true there's no such thing as bad press. "It's hard to say from a numbers perspective that this 'hurts' because we still see interest and discussion," Allocca says. "We can dislike something and still want it to be part of our lives and discussion."